Last week, you guys met one of my TARA partners in crime, Kathy Carmichael. This week, you get to meet the other one, Anne-Marie Carroll! A-M, as I affectionately call her (and she calls me Julie Elizabeth…always both names…and she’s the only one who’s allowed to do this other than my father) is an aspiring author of fantastic persistence and talent. She’s also one of the most giving people I know, and as such, has volunteered for the past three years to be the contest coordinator for my chapter’s TARA contest. Contests are a great way to get recognition for your work and network with other authors (see the note at the bottom of this post), so I thought…let’s get A-M on here! She’s not only a certified contest diva herself, but as contest chair, she’s seen a lot of entries and she knows what people do wrong and what they do right. So without further ado…A-M!
Contest – Are they the opportunity you’re looking for?
I’m not new to the contest circuit. I’ve been on the contest rodeo tour for the last few years, entering, finalling, winning, receiving requests, judging, and chairing TARA’s contest. Say that ten times.
When peers ask me about entering RWA chapter sponsored contests, I ask them what they want in return.
Is it to receive constructive feedback?
Is it to final?
Is it to get their baby in front of major acquiring editors?
Is it for the BLING? Sorry, I couldn’t resist. But who can? I just love contest bling, plaques, and chachkas (knick-knacks and trinkets).
When I enter contests now, (on a tried manuscript) I gauge who the editors are judging the category and pray for a final, win, and a request. If I’ve just started writing a new manuscript, it’s all about the constructive feedback. Many times judges will ask questions that get the little voice in my head to write, improve, and tighten my story. I’ve been blessed by judges’ comments to fix plot holes I never knew I had. Go figure. .
When I’m judging contests, (and I average judging six to eight major RWA chapter contests annually) I try to help new writers improve their writing, without rewriting their story, and experienced writers to final, get their baby in front of editors, and shoot – to win BLING. That’s not saying only experienced authors achieve those dreams. I’ve judged some of the best entries from new writers who have a voice that sings and prose that dances. Good constructive feedback is valuable.
DON’T MAKE CHANGES JUST BECAUSE A JUDGE SAYS YOU SHOULD. I don’t want to sound like I’m yelling, but I’ve seen too many people, myself included, who change their story just because a judge said to. This is your baby. Do only what you feel works for your voice, your characters, and your plot. Put your entry aside for a couple or a few days. Only tackle the judges’ comments when you’re ready. Gauge each judge’s comments to how it works best for your story. CHANGE ONLY IF IT WORKS FOR YOU. I read every comment and pay special attention, analyze and consider how I can improve my story and especially when more than one judge has commented on the same element.
During my years of judging and coordinating contests, I’ve found that entrants…
1. enter the wrong category, although some categories can overlap.
2. don’t follow contest rules.
3. rush to get an entry together and enter the contest last minute; therefore, more errors get through.
4. don’t have someone outside their family and friends proofread their entry.
5. make grammar, punctuation, and formatting errors.
6. write too much back story. Would your story benefit more with less or interweaving it throughout your story? K.I.S.S.
7. don’t start the story in the correct place.
8. don’t have varying sentence structure. Haven’t developed cadence.
9. haven’t utilized the five senses.
10. don’t have sympathetic characters or characters the judges (readers) can root for. IOW, characters who don’t deserve to breathe, let alone live. lol
11. haven’t created consistent characters. One minute they do or say something, the next they’re saying or doing the complete opposite or something that doesn’t ring true to their character.
12. tend to overwrite. Too much visceral or flowery description. I’m guilty as charged.
13. have point-of-view issues. Not only head hopping, but also writing things that the POV character would never think about themselves. i.e. Jacque tucked her thick, raven hair behind her delicate diamond-studded ear. Jacque would never think this about herself, right? Changes are she won’t think about the color of her eyes, hair, clothes, or the shape of her legs, etc.
14. introduce secondary character’s too soon or when not necessary.
15. fill their story with clichés instead of creating their own unique style.
16. write passages that slow pacing. Would your story benefit by eliminating some of your great words? If the answer is yes, delete and save in a file. Who knows, you may be able to use it later in this manuscript or in a future story.
17. create dialogue that isn’t consistent with your character or that is stilted.
18. don’t have a good balance between dialogue and introspection.
19. don’t cement goal, motivations, and conflicts (GMCs) or make them strong enough to carry the story. Set up road blocks.
20. have plot holes and inconsistencies.
21. don’t end a scene or their entry with a hook. You want to stop at a point that will make the reader, judge, and editor want to read more.
Take your entry or manuscript through the above checklist and make yourself the promise to enter what you believe is your best work possible at the time. Entering and judging contests are the best ways to help you develop your craft to become an outstanding writer – a published writer. Baby steps. But no matter what, don’t ever give up on your dreams.
Do you have any other flaws to add to the contest checklist? What do you look for in a contest? What draws you to a certain contest?
A great contest opportunity is the upcoming TARA Contest. I hope to see a lot of you there.
Out of 22 TARA finalists last year, 9 entries were requested by editors. One request resulted in a sale. Congratulations, Caroline! See Caroline’s comments below.
I’m thrilled to tell you that as a result of your wonderful Tara contest I’ve sold my first book!! My western historical manuscript, The Jingle of Spurs, won the historical category and the full was requested by e-mail by Leah Hultenschmidt from Dorchester Publishing. In less than a month I was offered my very first book contract. It’s a dream come true!! I can never thank you enough for your fabulous contest and the terrific people involved in coordinating it. Please look for my August 2009 release now titled, Where The Wind Blows.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
Sincerely,
~Caroline Fyffe
2009 TARA
Sponsor: Tampa Area Romance Authors
Fee: $25 (PayPal accepted)
Receipt Deadline: May 1, 2009
Enter: The first chapter, 4,000 words max (actual word count), including prologue, if applicable. *Word count will be verified. No part of a second or any additional chapters will be judged. You may also enter an optional synopsis (unjudged) of up to 1,500 words. End your entry on a hook, leaving your judges breathless with no more pages left to turn. Additional information available on TARA website. www.tararwa.com
Note: Per editor request, finalists must include a synopsis of up to 1,500 words at the time they submit revised entry for final judging.
Eligibility requirements: The TARA Contest is open to unpublished writers and to any author who has not been published in the past three years and is not currently contracted for any novel-length work of fiction (40,000 + words) in any format (ebook, mass market, etc). Disqualified entrants forfeit their entry fee.
Judges: trained/experienced, published (All editors acquire in the category judging.
Categories/Final Judges:
Series contemporary, Wanda Ottewell, Harlequin
Historical, Leah Hultenschmidt, Dorchester
Paranormal, Danielle Poiesz, Pocket
Single title, Deb Werksman, Sourcebooks
Women’s fiction, Lindsay Nouis, NAL
Romantic suspense, Amy Pierpont, Grand Central
Inspirational, Anne Horch, Faith Words
Top prize: Sterling Silver TARA pendant, certificate
FMI, entry form, and rules, send SASE to Anne-Marie Carroll, 5022 Umber Way N, Tampa, FL 33624, e-mail TARAContest@gmail.com, amcresume@aol.com or visit our website at www.tararwa.com
Good luck contesting and happy writing.
Julie again! If memory serves, Janelle judged Carly in a contest…and that’s how their friendship started. I also met a struggling but talented aspiring author through a contest…and her name is Joanne Rock! Yes, Joanne is now multi-published, but when I judged her in the TARA, we ended up getting to know one another and I was able to introduce her to my editor, Brenda Chin. In celebration of how contests can jumpstart careers, I’m giving away a copy of SHE THINKS HER EX IS SEXY, Joanne’s latest Blaze! Joanne is also a long-distance member of TARA. We like to keep things in the family around here.
By all reports, Julie Leto was a sweet child once, somewhat shy, preferring to play quietly in her room making up stories. However, being raised with three brothers in a loud, primarily Italian household did have its influences and Julie discovered her inner tough girl. That’s probably why most of her heroines kick serious butt. Writing sassy heroines has worked out, as she’s sold over forty books to four publishers featuring strong, confident women. Julie lives in Florida with her daughter, a spoiled dachshund, a haughty lynx-point Siamese and a wide range of relatives all within driving distance.
Destiny
Dirty Little Secrets
Once Upon A Valentine
Through The Night
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Great post AM!
The only thing I might add is to check out the score sheets for the contest you’re going to enter. Most chapters will have this on their websites.
An example of just one of the things you should check for: If you’re H/H don’t happen to meet in chapter one and the score sheet judges the meeting of the H/H, you might not want to enter that contest.
The TARA contest rocks and one of the things I love about it (there are tons of things I love about it), is the fact that all the judges are TARA members and receive judges training. In fact, it’s required to be a judge for the contest.
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Hi there Anne-Marie,
I read your list of things and, believe it or not, I have found one published book that had a character I couldn’t care about and was inconsistent. Some of this character’s actions were inconsistent with how a real-life person would act. Not only that, but the grammar and punctuation errors were thick enough to choke a horse. It was a large print edition and it took me over two weeks to get through 150 pages, finally I just gave up and couldn’t believe that it ever got published.
However, I figure that either they didn’t have money to spend on editing and proofing or they honestly didn’t read it before they printed it. I know it wasn’t me or my eyes because I have picked up at least three LP books since then and got to with 100 or more pages the first night.
Great blog! I loved it!
Carrie
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This is great advice but I’m one of those authors who falls through the “contest crack.” I’m under contract to a small press, though the book isn’t scheduled for release yet. I managed to make my first sale as the result of a contact made at my first meeting of my local RWA chapter.
This also happens to be great advice to anyone submitting a manuscript to a potential publisher or agent.
Thanks for visiting Ann Marie! I hope TARA gets wonderful entries this year and we get to see the winners in print! Speaking of RWA, I’m off to join my OK Outlaws for meetings today–Novelists’ Boot Camp this morning and our regular meeting this afternoon.
Have a great day, jungle buddies.
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Hi Ann-Marie!! Thanks for sharing those great contest entry tips!!
My contest experience is limited, I’ve only entered 2 contests and one of them was TARA. And the experience was beyond wonderful! I entered the first thing I’d ever written. OMG! I can’t believe I entered something like that. But at the time I was new and didn’t have a clue.
Between the time I entered the contest and received the judges comments, I’d hooked up with a CP who pointed out all the things I’d done wrong. Head hopping and lack of strong conflict were the two major problems.
I can tell you the exact date I received the contest entry, along with judges comments back. It was July 19th, 2007. On July 16th my husband was diagnosed with a brain tumor. On July 17th my oldest son was diagnosed with “kidney problems”. On July 19th, when that envelope arrived in my mailbox I couldn’t deal with the slaughtering comments I was sure I’d find so I chunked it in the mail without even opening it.
Later that night, curiosity got the best of me and I pulled it out of the trash.
Even though I’d entered a horrible piece of writig, the contest judges never made me feel stupid. Their comments were encouraging and positive, while also giving great constructive feedback. It was a huge bright spot in what was a very dark week for me.
I’ve heard many horror stories about contests, but the TARA contest was one of the best experiences I’ve had involving writing.
I strongly urge everyone to enter this contest. And Ann-Marie, thanks for doing such a phenomenal job with it. Julie, I think you help “train” the judges and thank you too, because you guys certainly do an outstanding job.
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ugh…need more caffeine…
Sorry I mis-spelled your name. And…I threw it in the trash!, not the mail. Sheesh…
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Hi Anne-Marie :wave: Thanks for all the helpfull advice! My contest experience is very limited, I only entered one, and it was Tara. I did get very positive feed back which really felt great for a newbie like me.
Alannah! Do you have any messages for me from my man? (poor baby had a bad day) Pictures?? Kisses? lol
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Hi, Julie Elizabeth. Thanks for having me. I’m laughing at only your father (and me) being able to call you by both names. I don’t think I could stop if I had to.
Hi Vicki, I agree. Check out the score sheets and take your entry through that check list. Some contests judge on sexual tension. I’m happy to say TARA doesn’t.
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Hi, Carrie. I know what you mean. lol Sometimes you just have to scratch your head and say huh? I do believe a lot people polish their 1st chapter until it gleams because of feedback on contests and some of that could spill over to published works. I’ve started reading a couple of books that I put down for the exact reasons you’re mentioning.
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Hi, Silver. Thanks for stopping in on your way out to your chapter meeting. I’m sorry you fall through the contest cracks, but congrats on your sale.
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Anne Marie, you are the contest queen!
I had a great experience with the TARA contest last year and I’m looking forward to participating again this year.
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Alannah, I hope your husband and son are doing well. With the couple of days you had, I don’t blame your for initially tossing the envelope. And I’m truly glad our contest was memorable — in a good way. lol
I couldn’t do what I do with the contest without my darlin’, Julie Elizabeth or my great category coordinators. Julie’s the bomb at training judges.
I hope you considering entering the TARA again this year. Pass the word. lol on my name and I knew you meant trash.
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Tina, I’m hope my advice helps. And yay on the positive TARA contest experience.
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One thing I can guarantee with the TARA Contest, every final editor judge buys in the category they’re judging. Throughout the year, I watch Publisher’s Market Place to see what editors are buying what. I won’t ask any editor, no matter how desperate I am to cement my editor line-up, to judge a category they aren’t acquiring in.
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Thanks, Sharron. I’m blessed to have you as part of my contest team. Good luck again this year.
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Hi Anne-Marie!! How are you??
Your post is very informative and you make excellent points. I always LOVED contests! Especially the TARA, yea!!!
I got one of my best opening lines from a first round judge. I originally had it two paragraphs down and she highlighted it saying it would be a great opener!! Why hadn’t I thought of that? That’s the beauty of two, four, or however many contests you enter, that number of brains are better than one.
I always kept a file going for each book, which contest it was entered in, who the final judges were, when they would announce finalists, where they ended up in the mix, etc. It not only kept things straight, it can be confusing when one has four manuscripts out there, but it was an emotional lift, too. When things weren’t going right, or I’d received a rejection or especially harsh contest feedback, I’d go to my file and look at the positive. ((:^>
So, for those of you thinking about entering the Tara this year in historical, all I can say is, Leah is the BEST! She’s so nice, prompt, professional and, an angel to boot. It’s totally worth your time and energy to get your baby in front of her. Enter!
Anne-Marie, I’m hoping to get to meet you in person at conference this year! You are an angel too!!!
Hugs,
~Caroline
Where The Wind Blows, Dorchester, August 2009
:heart1:
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I am not a writer, but I am wary of contests. I love Joanna Rock!
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Writing is not my area… When I was younger, I used to enter some art contests. I enjoyed getting creative with my drawings!
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Hi, Caroline. Are you still on Cloud 9? Thanks for stopping by. Excellent advice about pulling out the positives when you receive negatives. I can’t wait to meet you in person, either.
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Thanks for stopping by Katie and Colleen
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wow I never knew about this contest and that is interesting that Janelle judged Carly and they are such good friends and colleagues now. Thank you for such a great blog today.
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Tammy, I agree, it is interesting how Janelle judged Carly, and Julie Elizabeth judged Joanne. I’ve also bonded with a judge that judged one of my entries a couple of years ago. lol It’s a small world.
I hope to see you enter this year’s TARA Contest.
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Hey Anne-Marie,
Thanks for the great tips.
I’ve never entered a writing contest before, but I think I might give this one a try – I need to start sometime/somewhere and this sounds like a great opportunity, especially after your wonderful advice.
Have a great Saturday everyone, and thanks for stopping by A-M!
I’m going to get back to writing
<3 J
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Hey Tina! I’m still trying to get the :*&#! pictures off the camera and onto my laptop so I can e-mail them and post them. Honestly, I’ve gotten side-tracked this week. Hubby’s aunt passed away Saturday while we were in Daytona. All the family has been flying in this week and the funeral was yesterday. The last of the family is leaving today, so hopefully over the weekend, I’ll be able to get those pics off the camera and sent to you.
Anne-Marie, hubby and son are doing great. Son’s problem ended up being an undiagnosed strep infection that he’d had for 6 months. After a tonsilectomy he started feeling better and is doing great now.
Hubby had surgery to remove what they could of the tumor and has been on chemo tablets for the past 9 months. The last MRI showed the tumor is shrinking and turning into scar tissue! Yay! Thank God! Anyway, thanks for the well-wishes, they’re doing great.
Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m going to have anything to submit to TARA…well, you know what. Maybe I will. Silver and a few other online friends have about convinced me to write a NASCAR book. If I get on the stick, I might have that ready to go by the May 1st deadline. That’s definitely something to shoot for!
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Thanks for the post Anne-Marie. I’m going to refer to your checklist the next time I enter a contest. Good stuff!
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I’m not a writer but I do love to win contests! :flower4you:
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I’m not a writer, but this was a very fascinating post to read. Thanks for the interesting info!
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Alannah, I’m glad your husband and son are doing better. I’ll keep you and your family in my thoughts and prayers. Use the May 1st deadline to get on the stick. lol Good luck.
Jeanne, I hope the checklist works to get you into the finals. Hope to see you enter the TARA.
Karen, thanks for stopping by.
Deborah, I’m glad you found the blog interesting. I hope the post inspires you to start writing and entering contests.
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Welcome to the Jungle, Anne-Marie! Thanks for being here and thank you for the great advice concerning contests.
Have a wonderful Saturday,
Cher
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Thanks, Cher. Have a great weekend.
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Very informative post!
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Welcome Anne-Marie,
I’m not a writer, but I’ve learned so much about writing contests.
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My pleasure, Jane.
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Hi Anne-Marie. Great post regarding contests. Thank you for the great information.
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The TARA looks like an excellent contest. I love the final judge lineup, that it’s the first chapter (so the entry already has a hook), and the fact that if you final, revisions are allowed. I’ve also heard that the contest has an excellent reputation for being well run and giving good feedback. That’s important to me when considering where to spend my hard earned dollars.
The only drawbacks for me is that it’s paper entries and that there are only two first round judges. I like where there are three first round judges and the lowest score is dropped (that seems to help in cases of personal preference or unqualified judges). That said, I’ve heard that TARA judges are well trained. Do you think that the TARA will go to an all electronic format in the future?
Interesting blog! Thanks for sharing your experience!
Oh, and I was looking at that Blaze book on the Harlequin website last night. Looks delicious! I’d love to write for Blaze – actually, I’m hoping to.
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Thanks for stopping by, Crystal. I hope to see you enter the TARA Contest this year.
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Lara Lee, the TARA board, Julie Elizabeth and myself are looking at the possibility of going electronic entries in the future. I hope you’ll give the TARA a shot.
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Hi Anne-Marie,
As most everyone knows I don’t write but I read a lot!!
Thanks to the Plotmonkeys & guest bloggers I’ve learned a lot about how much work it is to write those books I enjoy so much. Thanks Authors! The only contests I enter are to win books!! Your advice those trying to become published is very valuable. I’m sure many profit from the contests and the experience.
Caroline, Congratulations on becoming published. Good luck with your sales.
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Hi, everyone! Yes, I’m the Judge Coordinator for the contest, which means I train all the judges and I’ve been doing it for years. I also wrote the score sheet many moon ago, based on a documented writing rubric I learned about in graduate school.
Lara Lee, yes, we’re looking to go electronic next year. There are two issues: one, how to receive the entries and two, how to train our judges to work electronically. We only use our own members as judges and they are trained once, sometimes twice a year. That gives us better controls over the quality of the judging. It’s not perfect, but it seems to work very well.
We don’t have enough members to have three judges per entry, but if there is a big discrepancy between two scores, we do bring on a third “discrepancy” judge. So some entries do get three judges, though the entrant won’t know it. The score that is least like the other two will be dropped. Could be high score, could be low score. Almost always, the discrepancy judge is multi-published. Our BEST judges do the discrepancy judging.
And btw, I think Blaze has THE BEST COVERS at Harlequin right now. I haven’t seen a bad one in I don’t know how long.
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Hi, Donna. I hear you on entering contests to win fantastic reads. There are a bunch of talented writers here in the jungle.
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I’ve had wonderful experiences with the TARA contest. My first year to judge and enter, I learned so much about the process. In 2007, after taking the judges training, I completely rewrote my prologue and 1st chapter and ended up being a finalist… and then winning the Single Title category! Awesome training by Julie and Anne-Marie!
And now I’m a category coordinator. :) Fun.
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Hi Anne Marie–wow, what fabulous information you’ve offered here today. Thanks so much for hanging out with us here in the jungle!
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Hi, Cynthia! That’s fabulous…and I didn’t realize the training helped so much! WOW! Of course, your ABILITY to decide on and do the revisions is what caused you to final and win! I think that 80% of an author’s success is based not on their ability to write, but to REwrite.
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Yes, rewriting and revisions are the name of the game, and something I love to do. Of course, I love to write and as you say that’s 80% of the process.
It’s also about making certain an entry into a writing contest or submission to an agent or editor should be the best it can be.
One other suggestion I have to any newbie writers in the contest circut is don’t end in the middle of the page or sentence! I judged a contest recently and believe it or not one of the entrants did this. They ended in the middle of the sentence. Hmmm…
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Hi, Cynthia. Everyone, not only is Cynthia a great writer, she’s an awesome category coordinator. I’m glad the training and judging helped. :)
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Leslie, thanks for having me and Julie for inviting me. It’s been great fun.
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Great point, Cynthia. No matter how many pages or words you’re allowed in a contest, always end on a hook — even if it means entering less. Sometimes less is better.
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Alannah, I’m so sorry for your loss. :hug2: Hope you guys had a chance to relax in Daytonna, and I hope I’m first on your email list…lol no pressure. And you know if you write a Nascar I’ll be first in line to read it!
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Fantastic advice, Anne-Marie! Thanks for sharing it. I used to enter contests without first reading the score sheets, which I’m sure hurt me. Now I make sure my mss fit the contest criteria.
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Wow, terrific advice, Anne-Marie! I’m just a reader but have a background in technical writing and editing–your tips apply to any situation where you’re trying to get your best self out there for public viewing! I’ve never entered a writing contest, but can see how entering the right subset of contests can really push you to focus your writing and goals. How neat what a small world it is, too
And giggling over the special limited use of Julie’s second name :wink:
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Thanks for a very informative post! I learned a lot!
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Vanessa, I hope the info helps. Looking at a scoresheet is always a good idea.
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Fedora, it is a small world. Ssh, don’t tell anyone about the limited use of Julie Elizabeth’s name. lol
Margie, I’m glad the post helped to enlighten.
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Hi Anne-Marie,
Thanks for the great advice. I’m a new member of TARA. Last Saturday was my 3rd meeting. I do have a book that just might be ready to enter by May 1st. It’ll be the first time I enter a contest and I need all the advice I can get. Right now I’m taking a writing course called Romance Writng Secrets, but Lori Wilde, and it’s really helping me re-write some scenes.
Wish me luck.
Debbie
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Debbie, welcome to TARA. I’m sure we’ve already told you that you joined a great group of writers. :) You’ll find that you’ll learn tons from TARA members. Our published authors, Julie Elizabeth included, are great. If it wasn’t for Julie Elizabeth, I would have accepted a dog contract. Yes, I could have been published, but I’m so glad JE sat on my shoulder. I turned down the contract. It would have been a bad business decision on my part. Thank you again, Julie Elizabeth.
I hope you decide to enter the TARA and our judge training course.
Have fun taking Lori’s course.
Good luck!
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I really enjoyed reading this post even though I’m not a writer.
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I’m glad you stopped by, Claudia.
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Interesting post!